ASTM International recently established the Interlaboratory Studies program, an effort to remove administrative burdens from its technical committees. ASTM earmarked $4 million over five years for the initiative. The ILS program will help in the development of useful precision and bias statements in ASTM test methods by providing staff support and financial resources to ASTM technical committees through the following value-added administrative services: assistance with the identification of participating laboratories; supervision of the generation and distribution of samples; data collection; and the generation of precision and bias statements and research reports. A pilot ILS program is already underway.

“The excellence of ASTM test methods is a tribute to our technical committees,” says James A Thomas, ASTM International president. “Through the ILS program, the board is recognizing the hard work of our committees by reducing the administrative burdens associated with running round-robin programs.”

Established in 1898, ASTM International is one of the largest standards development and delivery systems in the world. ASTM standards are used in research and development, product testing, quality systems and commercial transactions worldwide.

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